The new fuel standards, unveiled by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, would hold domestic auto­makers to a 35.5 mile-per-gallon standard by 2016. The new goal would harmonize U.S. fuel economy standards after years of differences between California's ambitious requirements and more modest national goals.

Tuesday's proposed regulations are a result of President Barack Obama's May agreement with automakers, states and the environmental community to tighten fuel efficiency and emissions standards, ending years of litigation over regulations. This plan goes even further than a 2007 law that set a nonbinding goal of 35 mpg by 2020.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called the announcement “another step forward by the administration to develop a clean energy economy that preserves American jobs and competitiveness while reducing dangerous pollution.”

But conservative critics, including Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, called it a case of regulatory overreach.

“This program is another example of the Obama administration's ‘government knows best' mindset,” Culberson said. “Rather than allowing our automakers to compete and build cars that consumers want, they're forced to build fleets that meet the air quality standards of California.”

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Administrators estimated earlier this year that the cost of the new requirements to automakers would be $1,300 per vehicle. But the National Highway Traffic and Safety Commission and EPA predict that the new standards will save drivers $3,000 in fuel costs during the lifetime of a model year 2016 vehicle. They will also conserve 1.8 billion barrels of oil and cut greenhouse gas emissions by 950 million metric tons.

Tuesday's announcement indicated a federal embrace of fuel economy standards first established by California but rejected by the EPA in 2007 during the Bush administration. After the Obama administration negotiated some changes in the requirements with the states, California's standards effectively became a federal program.

The plan “is an important step toward harmonizing federal regulations and development of a single national standard that is reasonable and predictable,” said Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich.

But Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., the top Republican on the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee, said the new regulations “will exact a heavy price on the American people for no climate benefit.”

There are still several steps before the latest standards take effect. The administration must draft specific rules for the new regulations by next March 30 in order to meet the deadline for the 2012 model year. The standards, to be phased in between 2012 and 2016, will increase fuel efficiency by 5 percent each year, according to a joint statement by the NHTSC and EPA.